Archaeology - ROMANIA Monthly Update - February 2006

Volunteer Archaeological Update - February 2006

In February we continued work for the dacian falx program. This program will carry on until July when the whole project will be presented at an archaeology and history conference in Alba Iulia. Also there will be published article in magazines about it.

At the beginning of the month we went to the History Museum in Bucharest where there is a reproduction of Trajan's Column which is one of the best sources that we have about the weapon.

We took pictures of the whole reproduction for the archive as well as close ups containing the weapon itself and the scene in which it is present. The images will be used for the Internet site and the DVD that will be created. These scenes are important because using these we may gain a greater understanding of how the weapon was used.

The pictures had to be arranged in chronological order and named. These images will been entered into a image data base of the Sarmizegetusa Cultural Association.

There are several types of falx although in the fighting scenes found on the Trajan's column only one type is featured whilst another type of falx is depicted amongst the treasures and spoils of war. The two types are not seen together in a scene, and we will probably make a reproduction of the ones from depicted in the scenes containing the spoils of war.

Another job that was completed during this period was the translation of the Avrig folder into English. It contains the results of the archeological digs, which we participated in the autumn of 2005. It contains along with the text a series of drawings of the trenches, images of the diggings, a list of the materials that were discovered and a conclusion.

At the end of the month we also went on a visit to Avrig because the volunteers that are now at the program did not get to take part in the dig itself and to just translate the file without being there would not be appropriate.

Unfortunately things are not going that well there because they have not as yet received the promised funds from Germany which were to be used for further restoration of the area. Therefore although some of the trees have been cut and some work has been done to the small spring not much progress has been made with the restoration. We will keep in contact with the manager of the program and when the work stars properly we will possibly go there for a week to give them a helping hand.

On the same day with the field trip to Avrig we made a visit to Sibiu where we saw the site in which we took part in archeological diggings. The situation is much better than in Avrig and a lot has been done. We also tried to visit the history museum although apparently due to restoration works it has been closed all year.

Another field trip taken to Rupea where there is a dacian fortification which was also used in medieval times, where it was built up more. Last summer some archeological digs were started in this area. The city hall is trying to repair it and this year the reconstructing process will start, depending of our schedule the Teaching and Project volunteers may participate in this.

George Andrei CIOTLAUSI
Archaeology Assistant for Project Abroad Romania

Projects Abroad Archaeology Centre Romania
6th March 2006

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